Baba Zula is a Turkish alternative musical group, founded in Istanbul in 1996. With a wide variety of influences and a wide range of instruments, they create a unique psychedelic sound.
Founded in 1996, the band features founding members Levent Akman and Murat Ertel as well as Coşar Kamçı, who replaced original member Emre Onel in 2005. BaBa Zula added live drawing artist Ceren Oykut into the mix in 2004. She left the band in 2010. Her presence onstage had added an important visual aspect to BaBa Zula's live performances. Akman, Ertel, and Onel originally formed Baba Zula as a side project of now disbanded Anatolian rock group Zen.
In 2005 Baba Zula was exposed to a wider international audience when they were featured in a documentary, Crossing the Bridge by Fatih Akin, which took an in-depth look at Istanbul's contemporary and avant-garde music scene.
Described as "Turkey’s most beloved alternative music purveyors" Baba Zula create a unique psychedelic sound, combining Traditional Turkish instruments, electronica, reggae and dub. The core of their sound is the saz, a Turkish bouzouki-like stringed instrument with a bright, high-pitched sound.
Baba Zula have performed at festivals such as the Roskilde Festival (Denmark), Sofia Film Festival (Bulgaria), Klinkende Munt Festival (Belgium), Arezzo Wave Festival (Italy), Images of Middle East (multi-city Denmark tour), Cologne Triennale (Germany), Printemps de Bourges (France), Şimdi/Now Festival (Germany), Era Nowe Horyzonty (Wrocław, Poland), the Boost Festival (Netherlands) and the Venice Biennial.

PJ Harvey has always been an artist who's created and delivered her work honestly and on her own terms, consistently driven by a desire to challenge herself, which in turn makes immersion in her art both rich and immensely rewarding. The strength of her soon-to-be nine album strong discography hinges on Harvey's ability to tap and harness her emotions in song – from her earlier material like the searing "Rub 'Till It Bleeds," to the softly strummed "The Desperate Kingdom of Love" (from 2004's Uh Huh Her, an LP on which she played all the instruments), to the often brittle brilliance of 2011's Let England Shake (for which she won her second Mercury Music Prize—the only artist to do so).
At the top of last year, 3000 lucky ticket holders descended into the bowels of London's Somerset House to watch Harvey and her collaborators – namely producer Flood and John Parish – through a one way pane of glass. In collaboration with Artangel, the project was titled, Recording in Progress, and took place over a period of five weeks. Also frequently in the purpose-built studio documenting the entire process, photojournalist and filmmaker Seamus Murphy. Harvey first approached Murphy several years ago after seeing his 2008 exhibition A Darkness Visible, which chronicled his experiences in Afghanistan. This then lead to Murphy directing 12 short films for Let England Shake.
We now know that the fruits of these "Recording in Progress" sessions have been collated for her opus, The Hope Six Demolition Project (out this April) – a clutch of songs directly inspired by Harvey and Murphy's travels to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington, D.C., all of which took place over a four year period.
"When I’m writing a song I visualise the entire scene," explains Harvey. "I can see the colors, I can tell the time of day, I can sense the mood, I can see the light changing, the shadows moving, everything in that picture. Gathering information from secondary sources felt too far removed for what I was trying to write about. I wanted to smell the air, feel the soil and meet the people of the countries I was fascinated with."
Many of the songs from The Hope Six… were given their first public airing back in October at London's Royal Festival Hall, performed against the arresting backdrop of Murphy's photos. And it's not the first time these particular travels have provided grist for her art: she poured her experiences not only into this new LP, but also her first poetry book, 2015's The Hollow of the Hand, her words here again complemented by Murphy's images.
YouTube recordings from the Royal Festival Hall performance aside, on January 21st Harvey debuted "The Wheel," a bluesy maelstrom of brass, ferociously pounded drums, and insistent handclaps. She's echoed and responded to by an incantatory choir, her refrains of "and watch them fade out," as the song hurtles towards its close, are hypnotic and unsettling too.

M.I.A. is a British singer known for albums such as Arular and Kaya and hit singles such as "Paper Planes" and "O...Saya."
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Synopsis
M.I.A. was born to Sri Lankan parents in London, England, in 1975. She got her start in the arts as a graphic artist and filmmaker before transitioning into music and releasing her first single, "Galang," in 2003. With each subsequent release, M.I.A. further climbed the charts with her danceable yet message-driven music, and in 2009 a song she co-wrote for the film Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for an Oscar. With her fingers in many pies, M.I.A. started her own record label, N.E.E.T., and when not releasing mixtapes and remixes stays busy with her philanthropic work.
Early Years
M.I.A. was born Mathangi Arulpragasam in London in 1975. Her parents are of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, and when she was six months old, her family moved back to Sri Lanka. Her father led a Tamil independence movement and was always on the move avoiding the Sri Lankan government, finally moving to India and then back to London in 1986.
M.I.A. graduated from art school in the late 1990s and found success as a graphic artist and filmmaker. She moved into the musical realm after filming a documentary of the band Elastica's 2001 tour (having previously done some album artwork for the band). Elastica's lead singer, Justine Frischmann, lent M.I.A. a Roland MC-505 sequencer/drum machine, and she used it to record a demo tape. The demo tape included the single "Galang," which in turn helped her gain a following online before she ever had a record contract. Soon, though, the contract followed, with British label XL Recordings signing her and officially releasing "Galang" (2003), which reached No. 8 on the U.S. dance charts. "Sunshowers" (2004) was the next release, although it failed to chart in the United States.
The Major Releases and Hollywood
A year after "Sunshowers" came out, M.I.A. released Arular (the name her father adopted when he and his family moved back to Sri Lanka), an album she recorded and produced in her London bedroom. Using demos recorded a few years earlier, M.I.A. addressed global conflicts and oppression, gaining the record attention not only with the listening audience (the record reached No. 3 on the U.S dance charts) but with critics as well.
Her second album, Kala, named for her mother, came out in 2007 and was recorded in various locales around the globe. "Paper Planes" became a surprise hit single in the summer of 2008, eventually reaching the top 10 and hitting No. 1 on the U.S. dance charts. "Boyz" also charted solidly, reaching No. 3 on the dance charts. The album itself hit No. 18 and was named the best album of the year by Rolling Stone and Blender.
During this time, M.I.A. began working with the heavy hitters in the music industry, such as Timbaland and Jay-Z, and acclaimed Hollywood directors, such as Spike Jonze and Danny Boyle. M.I.A. filmed a documentary with Jonze and co-wrote a song ("O…Saya") for Boyle's Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, in the process earning an Oscar nomination for Best Song Written for a Film. The song was also notable in that it appeared on the first record to be released on M.I.A.'s own label, N.E.E.T. Another M.I.A. song that took on a new life was "Paper Planes," which was sampled on T.I. and Jay-Z's "Swagger Like Us" and was featured in the trailer for the film Pineapple Express. That song led M.I.A. into an infamous performance with the duo (plus Kanye West) at the 2008 Grammy Awards while nine months pregnant.
Beyond the Hits
Always one to promote multidimensional projects in the arts, M.I.A. signed bands such as Baltimore musician Blaqstarr and indie rock band Sleigh Bells to N.E.E.T., while also signing visual artist Jaime Martinez. Not leaving herself out, N.E.E.T. released Maya (styled /\/\/\Y/\) in 2010. The album entered the U.K. albums chart at No. 21 and reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200, debuting in the top 10 in Finland, Norway, Greece and Canada. The album also topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
When M.I.A. isn't releasing studio albums, she keeps busy with remixes, mixtapes and online releases, all of which help keep her in the musical spotlight and highlight her cutting-edge nature.
In May 2012, M.I.A. signed on with Jay-Z's management company Roc Nation, and in April 2013 she came out with her next album, Matangi.
M.I.A. is noted for her philanthropic and activist work across a spectrum of causes, and she has been recognized for her work as a music video director, graphic designer and fashion designer.